My picks for best actors year-by-year, based on my choices in the Wonders in the Dark weekly poll
Read the introduction for background & further explanation
From Severin Mars, who died before this lineup even opens (my ballot's only posthumous award) to Ryan Gosling, born the same decade as me this list runs the gamut of acting eras and styles. I think of myself as someone who prefers a "naturalistic" style of performance, but scrolling through these characters I notice that many are over-the-top and larger-than-life. Clearly I enjoy an actor who's willing to chew scenery with gusto - but along with colorfulness, I appreciate intensity. There are quiet types below as well, but they tend to simmer beneath the surface. These actors skew younger than I expected and to my surprise I see that none are over sixty. I also left out some notable names (Jack Nicholson, in particular, is a grievous absence) while rewarding others numerous times but some of those absences can at least be found on the upcoming supporting list, a small consolation perhaps but a great performance is a great performance regardless of size.
Allan was the one who determined what counted as a lead vs. supporting performance, and I think in some cases he departed from the Academy's criterion. I followed suit. In addition to the actor's name, film's title, and accompanying image (I tried to find pictures isolating or at least focusing on the person in question), I also included the director(s) who worked with the performer, the name of the character portrayed, and the actor's lifespan so you can roughly glean their age at the time. Below the full lineup, I've listed another series of links - these lead to other posts on this blog covering the films these actors appeared in.
So far this week I've posted my top feature films and top short films for 1923 - 2012
Severin Mars (1873 - 1921)
...as Sisif in
•La Roue (dir. Abel Gance)
1924
Emil Jannings (1884 - 1950)
...as Hotel Doorman in
•The Last Laugh (dir. F.W. Murnau)
1925
Jean Forest (1912 - 1980)
...as Jean Amsler in
•Visages d'Enfants (dir. Jacques Feyder)
1926
Buster Keaton (1895 - 1966)
...as Johnnie Gray in
•The General (dir. Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman)
1927
Lon Chaney (1883 - 1930)
...as Alonzo in
•The Unknown (dir. Tod Browning)
1928
Erich von Stroheim (1885 - 1957)
...as Prince Nicki in
•The Wedding March (dir. Erich von Stroheim)
1929
Maurice Chevalier (1888 - 1972)
...as Count Alfred Renard in
•The Love Parade (dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
1930
Gary Cooper (1901 - 1961)
...as Legionnaire Tom Brown in
•Morocco (dir. Josef von Sternberg)
1931
Boris Karloff (1887 - 1969)
...as the Creature in
•Frankenstein (dir. James Whale)
1932
Michel Simon (1895 - 1975)
...as Boudu in
•Boudu Saved From Drowning (dir. Jean Renoir)
1933
Charles Laughton (1899 - 1962)
...as King Henry VIII in
•The Private Life of Henry VIII (dir. Alexander Korda)
1934
John Barrymore (1882 - 1942)
...as Oscar Jaffe in
•Twentieth Century (dir. Howard Hawks)
1935
Charles Laughton (1899 - 1962)
...as Captain Bligh in
•Mutiny on the Bounty (dir. Frank Lloyd)
1936
Walter Huston (1883 - 1950)
...as Sam Dodsworth in
•Dodsworth (dir. William Wyler)
1937
Henry Fonda (1905 - 1982)
...as Eddie Taylor in
•You Only Live Once (dir. Fritz Lang)
1938
Errol Flynn (1909 - 1959)
...as Sir Robin of Locksley in
•The Adventures of Robin Hood
(dir. Michael Curtiz & William Keighley)
1939
Henry Fonda (1905 - 1982)
...as Abe Lincoln in
•Young Mr. Lincoln (dir. John Ford)
1940
James Stewart (1908 - 1997)
...as Alfred Kralik in
•The Shop Around the Corner (dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
1941
Walter Huston (1883 - 1950)
...as "Scratch" in
•The Devil and Daniel Webster (dir. William Dieterle)
Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957)
...as Rick Blaine in
•Casablanca (dir. Michael Curtiz)
1943
Roger Livesey (1906 - 1976)
...as Clive Candy in
•The Life and Death of Col. Blimp
(dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger)
1944
Laurence Olivier (1907 - 1989)
...as King Henry V in
•Henry V (dir. Laurence Olivier)
1945
Ray Milland (1905 - 1986)
...as Don Birnam in
•The Lost Weekend (dir. Billy Wilder)
1946
James Stewart (1908 - 1997)
...as George Bailey in
•It's a Wonderful Life (dir. Frank Capra)
1947
John Garfield (1913 - 1952)
...as Charley Davis in
•Body and Soul (dir. Robert Rossen)
1948
Robert Ryan (1909 - 1973)
...as Joe Parkson in
•Act of Violence (dir. Fred Zinnemann)
1949
James Cagney (1899 - 1986)
...as Cody Jarrett in
•White Heat (dir. Raoul Walsh)
1950
Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957)
...as Dixon Steele in
•In a Lonely Place (dir. Nicholas Ray)
1951
Marlon Brando (1924 - 2004)
...as Stanley Kowalski in
•A Streetcar Named Desire (dir. Elia Kazan)
1952
Takashi Shimura (1905 - 1982)
...as Kanji Watanabe in
•Ikiru (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
1953
Yves Montand (1921 - 1991)
...as Mario in
•The Wages of Fear (dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot)
1954 (tie)
Marlon Brando (1924 - 2004)
...as Terry Malloy in
•On the Waterfront (dir. Elia Kazan)
1954 (tie)
Bing Crosby (1903 - 1977)
...as Frank Elgin in
•The Country Girl (dir. George Seaton)
1955
Ernest Borgnine (1917 - 2012)
...as Marty Piletti in
•Marty (dir. Delbert Mann)
1956
John Wayne (1907 - 1979)
...as Ethan Edwards in
•The Searchers (dir. John Ford)
1957
Tony Curtis (1925 - 2010)
...as Sidney Falco in
•Sweet Smell of Success (dir. Alexander Mackendrick)
1958
James Stewart (1908 - 1997)
...as John "Scottie" Ferguson in
•Vertigo (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
1959
Jean-Pierre Leaud (b. 1944)
...as Antoine Doinel in
•The 400 Blows (dir. Francois Truffaut)
1960
Albert Finney (b. 1936)
...as Arthur Seaton in
•Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
(dir. Karel Reisz)
1961
Toshiro Mifune (1920 - 1977)
...as Sanjuro Kuwabatake in
•Yojimbo (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
1962
Peter O'Toole (b. 1932)
...as T.E. Lawrence in
•Lawrence of Arabia (dir. David Lean)
1963
Richard Harris (1930 - 2002)
...as Frank Machin in
•This Sporting Life (dir. Lindsay Anderson)
1964
Rod Steiger (1925 - 2002)
...as Sol Nazerman in
•The Pawnbroker (dir. Sidney Lumet)
1965
Orson Welles (1915 - 1985)
...as Sir John Falstaff in
•Chimes at Midnight (dir. Orson Welles)
1966
Vaclav Neckar (b. 1943)
...as Milos Hrma in
•Closely Watched Trains (dir. Jiri Menzel)
1967
Dustin Hoffman (b. 1937)
...as Benjamin Braddock in
•The Graduate (dir. Mike Nichols)
1968
Malcolm McDowell (b. 1943)
...as Mick Travis in
•If... (dir. Lindsay Anderson)
1969
Colin Blakely (1930 - 1987)
...as Jesus Christ in
•Son of Man (dir. Gareth Davies)
1970
George C. Scott (1927 - 1999)
...as Gen. George S. Patton in
•Patton (dir. Franklin Schaffner)
1971
Malcolm McDowell (b. 1943)
...as Alex DeLarge in
•A Clockwork Orange (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
1972
Klaus Kinski (1926 - 1991)
...as Don Lope de Aguirre in
•Aguirre, the Wrath of God (dir. Werner Herzog)
1973
Robert Mitchum (1917 - 1997)
...as Eddie "Fingers" Coyle in
•The Friends of Eddie Coyle (dir. Peter Yates)
1974
Al Pacino (b. 1940)
...as Michael Corleone in
•The Godfather Part II (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
1975
Al Pacino (b. 1940)
...as Sonny Wortzik in
•Dog Day Afternoon (dir. Sidney Lumet)
1976
Robert De Niro (b. 1943)
...as Travis Bickle in
•Taxi Driver (dir. Martin Scorsese)
1977
Jack Nance (1943 - 1996)
...as Henry Spencer in
•Eraserhead (dir. David Lynch)
1978
Anthony Hopkins (b. 1937)
...as Corky Withers & Fats in
•Magic (dir. Richard Attenborough)
1979
Peter Sellers (1925 - 1980)
...as Chance the Gardener in
•Being There (dir. Hal Ashby)
1980
Robert De Niro (b. 1943)
...as Jake LaMotta in
•Raging Bull (dir. Martin Scorsese)
1981
John Heard (b. 1945)
...as Alex Cutter in
•Cutter's Way (dir. Ivan Passer)
1982
Dustin Hoffman (b. 1937)
...as Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels in
•Tootsie (dir. Sydney Pollack)
1983
Robert Duvall (b. 1930)
...as Mac Sledge in
•Tender Mercies (dir. Bruce Beresford)
1984
F. Murray Abraham (b. 1939)
...as Antonio Salieri in
•Amadeus (dir. Milos Forman)
1985
Dustin Hoffman (b. 1937)
...as Willy Loman in
•Death of a Salesman (dir. Volker Schlondorff)
1986
Michael Gambon (b. 1940)
...as Philip Marlow in
•The Singing Detective (dir. Jon Amiel)
1987
Michael Douglas (b. 1944)
...as Gordon Gekko in
•Wall Street (dir. Oliver Stone)
1988
Jeremy Irons (b. 1948)
...as Beverly & Elliot Mantle in
•Dead Ringers (dir. David Cronenberg)
1989
Daniel Day-Lewis (b. 1957)
...as Christy Brown in
•My Left Foot (dir. Jim Sheridan)
1990
Gerard Depardieu (b. 1948)
...as Cyrano de Bergerac in
•Cyrano de Bergerac (dir. Jean-Paul Rappeneau)
1991
River Phoenix (1970 - 1993)
...as Eddie Birdlace in
•Dogfight (dir. Nancy Savoca)
1992
Denzel Washington (b. 1954)
...as Malcolm X in
•Malcolm X (dir. Spike Lee)
1993
David Thewlis (b. 1963)
...as Johnny in
•Naked (dir. Mike Leigh)
1994
Johnny Depp (b. 1963)
...as Edward Wood, Jr. in
•Ed Wood (dir. Tim Burton)
1995
Vincent Cassel (b. 1966)
...as Vinz in
•La Haine (dir. Mathieu Kassovitz)
1996
Ewan McGregor (b. 1971)
...as Renton in
•Trainspotting (dir. Danny Boyle)
1997
Nick Nolte (b. 1941)
...as Wade Whitehouse in
•Affliction (dir. Paul Schrader)
1998
Jeff Bridges (b. 1949)
...as the Dude in
•The Big Lebowski (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen)
Sean Penn (b. 1960)
...as Emmet Ray in
•Sweet and Lowdown (dir. Woody Allen)
2000
Mark Ruffalo (b. 1967)
...as Terry Prescott in
•You Can Count on Me (dir. Kenneth Lonergan)
2001
Denzel Washington (b. 1954)
...as Det. Alonzo Harris in
•Training Day (dir. Antoine Fuqua)
2002
Nicolas Cage (b. 1964)
...as Charlie & Donald Kaufman in
•Adaptation (dir. Spike Jonze)
2003
Min-sik Choi (b. 1962)
...as Dae-su Oh in
•Oldboy (dir. Chan-wook Park)
2004
Geoffrey Rush (b. 1951)
...as Peter Sellers in
•The Life & Death of Peter Sellers
(dir. Stephen Hopkins)
2005
Heath Ledger (1979 - 2008)
...as Ennis Del Mar in
•Brokeback Mountain (dir. Ang Lee)
2006
Sacha Baron Cohen (b. 1971)
...as Borat in
•Borat (dir. Larry Charles)
2007
Daniel Day-Lewis (b. 1957)
...as Daniel Plainview in
•There Will Be Blood (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
2008
Mickey Rourke (b. 1952)
...as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in
•The Wrestler (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
2009
Sam Rockwell (b. 1968)
...as Sam Bell in
•Moon (dir. Duncan Jones)
2010
Ryan Gosling (b. 1980)
...as Dean in
•Blue Valentine (dir. Derek Cianfrance)
2011
Michael Fassbender (b. 1977)
...as Carl Jung in
•A Dangerous Method (dir. David Cronenberg)
2012
Joaquin Phoenix (b. 1974)
...as Freddie Quell in
•The Master (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
•
Explore these films on Lost in the Movies:
La Roue (Severin Mars)
The General (Buster Keaton)
The Wedding March (Erich von Stroheim)
Morocco (Gary Cooper)
Frankenstein (Boris Karloff)
Boudu Saved From Drowning (Michel Simon)
You Only Live Once (Henry Fonda)
The Adventures of Robin Hood (Errol Flynn)
Young Mr. Lincoln (Henry Fonda)
The Shop Around the Corner (James Stewart)
The Devil and Daniel Webster (Walter Huston)
Casablanca (Humphrey Bogart)
The Life and Death of Col. Blimp (Roger Livesey)
Henry V (Laurence Olivier)
The Lost Weekend (Ray Milland)
It's a Wonderful Life (James Stewart)
In a Lonely Place (Humphrey Bogart)
On the Waterfront (Marlon Brando)
The Country Girl (Bing Crosby)
Marty (Ernest Borgnine)
The Searchers (John Wayne)
Sweet Smell of Success (Tony Curtis)
Vertigo (James Stewart)
The 400 Blows (Jean-Pierre Leaud)
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (Albert Finney)
Lawrence of Arabia (Peter O'Toole)
This Sporting Life (Richard Harris)
The Graduate (Dustin Hoffman)
Son of Man (Colin Blakely)
Patton (George C. Scott)
A Clockwork Orange (Malcolm McDowell)
The Godfather Part II (Al Pacino)
Taxi Driver (Robert De Niro)
Raging Bull (Robert De Niro)
Cutter's Way (John Heard)
Amadeus (F. Murray Abraham - not in clip)
Wall Street (Michael Douglas)
Malcolm X (Denzel Washington)
Naked (David Thewlis)
La Haine (Vincent Cassel)
Affliction (Nick Nolte)
The Big Lebowski (Jeff Bridges)
You Can Count on Me (Mark Ruffalo)
Training Day (Denzel Washington)
Adaptation (Nicolas Cage - not in clip)
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (Geoffrey Rush)
A Dangerous Method (Michael Fassbender)
Additionally, 15 of films featuring my Best Actor performances appear alongside brief capsules in:
12 comments:
For me....
1994: Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump (dir. Robert Zemeckis)
1995: Vincent Cassel in La Haine (dir. Mathieu Kassovitz)
1996: Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade (dir. Billy Bob Thornton)
1997: Kevin Spacey in L.A. Confidential (dir. Cutis Hanson)
1998: Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen)
1999: Richard Farnsworth in The Straight Story (dir. David Lynch)
2000: Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love (dir. Wong Kar-Wai)
2001: Denzel Washington in Training Day (dir. Antoine Fuqua)
2002: Nicolas Cage in Adaptation. (dir. Spike Jonze)
2003: Bill Murray in Lost in Translation (dir. Sofia Coppola)
2004: Geoffrey Rush in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (dir. Stephen Hopkins)
2005: Mickey Rourke in Sin City (dir. Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller)
2006: Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland (dir. Kevin MacDonald)
2007: Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood (dir. P.T. Anderson)
2008: Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
2009: Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer (dir. Marc Webb)
2010: Jeff Bridges in True Grit (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen)
2011: Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Hesher (dir. Spencer Susser)
2012: Joaquin Phoenix in the Master (dir. P.T. Anderson)
Fair amount of overlap here. I haven't seen Sling Blade, The Straight Story, True Grit or Hesher yet (in fact I'm not actually sure what Hesher is; I'll have to look it up!)
Nice to see some love for Gump. I think the only award I gave it was Supp. Actress for Robin Wright. I understand the criticisms of it, but I've always found it immensely entertaining as a yarn.
Indeed, I find Gump to be a very overrated and fluffy film, but it still entertains and Hanks carries the film with his absent-minded charm...
Similar to your choice of Johnny Depp in Ed Wood, except I thought Hanks' was more an accomplishment in a challenge of a role that could've easily been deemed tasteless or campy if handled incorrectly. Depp's role seemed sincere from the start...
A similar reason for Hanks was why I chose Thornton for Sling Blade... as well as the fact that Childers is just such a fascinating and tragic character but in his tragedy is the only place where he finds complete solace.
Your choice of Sacha Baron Cohen interested me and I think I have to largely agree, though I have a soft spot for the bait-and-switch of Idi Amin where Whitaker portrays first as charming, friendly and generally pleasant then makes a monstrous shift to paranoid, egotistical and savage.
Bridges was chosen for True Grit for particularly living up to the name of the movie and Hesher is my favorite role by Joseph Gordon-Levitt yet (though the movie is more or less average... and it may just be the metalhead in me) - a role so powerful it immediately reminded Metallica of their late bassist Cliff Burton when they were screening the movie to consider granting them song royalties...
What a great list Joel. I'm sure there's a quibble I could have wiht one or two of these but they are all solid winners in "alt" list.
Bogart as Dixon Steel in "In a Lonely Place" (1950) is an inspiration as far as I'm concerned. Certainly his most unsettling performance.
Bogart usually gets pegged as an icon before an actor, someone like John Wayne who carried the same persona from film to film. It's true that Bogart's look and voice were so distinctive that he's always "Bogie" to a certain extent in the viewer's mind; however, his characters often vary wildly - Dixon Steele is nothing like Sam Spade is nothing like Captain Queeg is nothing like Rick Blaine etc. They often have a wounded quality, a touch of paranoia, and a kind of sneering toughness, his trademarks, but fundamentally these characters are very different people, and even his physical appearance can seem to change from role to role. There's something just rawly sensitive about Steele, as if the hurt can't help but peek through. I realized voting for all these categories how much In a Lonely Place sticks out in my mind because it one quite a few of my "awards." It's been years since I've seen it (twice, I think) but the impression lingers and perhaps even grows.
(Oh, and not to mention Fred C. Dobbs above, who ends up as pathetic as, say, Marlowe ends up cool).
Very surprised by Olivier's 1944 win. I always thought of Henry V being a triumph of direction, with his Richard III being the superior performance.
Also interesting that most of your "repeat winners" have wins within five years of each other, with a few exceptions, which would imply that most great actors get on a "roll" of sorts where they are consistently knocking it out of the park, as opposed to a long career of great performances.
From everything I've heard, you're probably right though sadly I still haven't seen Richard III (I have a big chronological canon Netflic queue which is in the 1950s now so I should be reaching it soon). Certainly Henry, particularly after assuming the throne, is not necessarily one of Shakespeare's most compelling characters but Olivier being Olivier, he plays the part with gusto and of the competition I found his work most compelling (not sure of closest competition, maybe MacMurray for Double Indemnity?).
Definitely a brilliant work of direction. Lots of competition that year though - Maya Deren for At Land, Edward Dmytryk for the sublimely atmospheric Murder my Sweet, Otto Preminger for Laura, Sergei Eisenstein for Ivan the Terrible. Still, Olivier would top them all I think. Still, he was slightly edged out by a completely out-of-left-field choice, Gjon Mili for Jammin' the Blues, to me the most sublime use of music onscreen within a field of intense competition. What Mili does with camera, cutting, lighting, and timing of performance is nothing short of miraculous. But Olivier's work is great too (many would defer to him on scale alone, but I don't really tilt in that direction, at least most of the time - though there admittedly were occasions where those factors played strongly). Ultimately it's apples/oranges.
Re: 2nd point - that's true, and some have said the same of directors although increasingly I've come to see more creative longevity in director's careers than I used to. Favorability comes and goes, and styles shift, but I think talent remains (actors, more than directors, seem dependent on the whims of agents, producers, and audiences - not that directors don't receive weak material too but maybe it's easier for them to transcend it?).
"Actors, more than directors, seem dependent on the whims of agents, producers, and audiences - not that directors don't receive weak material too but maybe it's easier for them to transcend it?"
I'd agree with this.
I also want to say how pleased I am to see you give some kudos to Sacha Baron Cohen. I've been saying that performance was award-worthy for seven years, but no one will listen! Funny how cinephiles always complain about classic comedians like Chaplin or Keaton never getting properly rewarded for their films, but still ignore modern comedians. Oh well.
Excellent distinctions between Bogart the actor and Bogart the icon, Joel. I think its true that "In Lonely Place" is his most haunted role--there is no redemption for Dixon or Dobbs, showing how Bogart was a actor first and a star second.
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